Wage debate hints at bigger story of salary imbalances

The argument for raising the country’s minimum wage above $7.25 an hour is to provide a “living wage,” for those in low-paying jobs.
For 2014, states agreeing to pay more than the federal level include our neighbors to the east and west, Missouri and Colorado. Missouri bumped its up to $7.50 an hour; Colorado increased its from $7.78 to $8 an hour.
Across the country, a total of 14 states have increased their minimum wage rates. California will increase its from $8 to $9 an hour and is scheduled to bump it to $10 an hour beginning in 2016.
It’s no surprise Kansas is holding back. In an interview with Fox News last week, Art Laffer, Gov. Brownback’s former economic consultant, said the current minimum wage is too high.
Laffer said the legislation should be called the “black teenage unemployment act,” because it sets the bar too high for that demographic.
Laffer, in fact, is in favor of eliminating the minimum wage altogether for teens, saying that would open the door for more Afro-Americans.
Nothing racist there.
Laffer was paid $75,000 to advise Brownback on revising the Kansas tax code. If you remember, the changes gave advantage to wealthy taxpayers, at the expense of the lower and middle classes.
Laffer also supported Brownback’s plan to eliminate the Earned Income Tax Credit for the lower and middle classes and to increase the rate of sales tax.

IT’S THIS KIND of groupthink that leads to a more unbalanced country.
In a story about Boeing employees coming to an agreement with management about future pay, it was revealed Boeing CEO Jim McNerny was paid $21.1 million last year. That’s 314 times the amount the average union employee makes.
As CEO of JCPenney,  Ronald Johnson was paid 1,795 times the amount of the average worker in 2012. Johnson was paid $53.3 million in 2012, as compared to the average worker pay of $29,688.
Corporate America not only thinks this is OK, but also has the nerve to aggressively lobby for income tax cuts — with success.
Time was, the average multiple of CEO salary to that of rank-and-file workers was 25. Today, it is 204, up 20 percent since 2009.

AS A STATE, we have no say as to what large corporations pay their executives. But we do have a say as to how much they should pay in taxes and what a minimum wage should be.
Kansas workers are listening.
— Susan Lynn